LibriVox recording of The Chimes, by Charles Dickens. Read by Ruth Golding.

The Chimes: A Goblin Story of Some Bells that Rang an Old Year Out and a New Year In is the second of Charles Dickens' Christmas books, published in 1844. Its contemporary setting is the "Hungry Forties", a time of social and political unrest, and the book has a strong moral message. It remained popular for many years, although its fame has since been eclipsed by that of A Christmas Carol, the first of the series.

Our hero Toby ("Trotty") Veck is a poor but hard-working man, whose beloved daughter Meg is due to marry on New Year's Day. Trotty, who is appalled by newspaper reports of crime and immorality, is further depressed by his encounters with the rich and influential Alderman Cute and Sir Joseph Bowley, who make him feel that the poor have no right to exist in society, and his daughter has no right to marry. Trotty hears messages in the chimes of the church bells, which lead him to visit the belfry at night on New Year's Eve...(Introduction by Ruth Golding)

Details of the source text may be found on the LibriVox catalogue page for this item.

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M4B format available


This audio is part of the collection: The LibriVox Free Audiobook Collection
It also belongs to collections: Audio Books & Poetry; Community Audio

Artist/Composer: Charles Dickens
Date: 2010-12-08
Source: Librivox recording of a public-domain text
Keywords: librivox; audiobook; christmas books; new year; poverty; social history; the poor; bells; Victorian

Creative Commons license: Public Domain Mark 1.0

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Reviewer: ListeninginChicago - - August 8, 2011
Subject: Excellent!
As a reader, Ruth is a real artist. She does more than read. She takes a great work of literature and shows it in its best light. I was not familiar with this story, but was captivated by Dickens' characters - exhibiting the best and worst in people.

Thank you Ruth for sharing your gift!

Reviewer: TheBookworm - - December 20, 2010
Subject: The Chimes
Without doubt one of the finest voice recordings offered by LibriVox.

Ruth Golding's performance is of great beauty and professional in every way. Her sung interpretation of the church bells is outstanding. Sound quality is very high, with no pops, hisses or noise cleaning artefacts. And having completely run out of adjectives I'll just say thank you Ruth!

TheBookworm (Manchester, UK)